Results 1-20 of 1,283 for speaker:Geoffrey Robinson

Oral Answers to Questions — Business, Innovation and Skills: Apprentices (SMEs) (13 June 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: I am sure the whole House will wish Humphrey a speedy recovery! The Opposition are not at all disappointed that the Secretary of State has stepped into the breach. Although his Department has achieved some success on apprentices, the construction industry is still falling behind its own targets. If we are to get the investment programme under way, it is vital to increase it. Will the...

Economic Growth (15 May 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: I think that some of us who have sat through this debate find it regrettable that, to a large extent, it has been hijacked by the obsessively anti-European faction in the coalition parties. It is not that Europe is not important, but the debate is about the Queen’s Speech and a reflection on the Government’s record after three years in office. Rather than intruding on the private...

Economic Growth (15 May 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: Here we go again. I do not know of any major infrastructure project that has not run over budget. As my hon. Friend the Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman) said, let us see what happens to HS2. They all run over budget. Some terrible PFI deals were done—there is no question about it—but all Government Members ever do is say what Labour did badly. We have admitted that we did...

Economic Growth (15 May 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: The Chancellor produces that tired statistic every time we mention investment. Let us take construction. The last time the level of house building was this low was in the 1920s. Overall, the level of construction has fallen 11% in the last year. This is against a background of a chronic need for the jobs and growth that investment can supply. We need a major uplift in the level of investment....

Prime Minister: Abu Qatada (24 April 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: The Secretary of State rightly emphasised that, under present conditions, the SIAC ruling prevents her from deporting Qatada. Presumably, the comprehensive treaty with Jordan is designed to meet the circumstances to which SIAC refers. I assume that we cannot go back to SIAC for a revision of the ruling, although perhaps she will confirm that point, but perhaps we can use at the Supreme Court...

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the Law (25 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: May I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests? I listened attentively to the Budget statement and tried to hear something that was positive, not just for exports, but for manufacturing, for business and for productive industries. There were just two things that we, of course, welcome: the £2,000 off national insurance...

Budget Resolutions and Economic Situation — Amendment of the Law (25 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: We can give moderate support to the expansion of the Firstbuy scheme, which sounds good. Indeed, I recently visited such a scheme on the old Jaguar site in my constituency, which has proved a great help. However, does the Secretary of State not agree that making the mortgage expansion scheme available to second home buyers would be quite obscene, given that we are imposing a bedroom tax on...

Coventry City Football Club (12 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: I have an interest in the club to declare, which I do so willingly. Before the Minister moves on to the general considerations, could he find any way in which he might facilitate mediation? The two sides are locked in what seems to be a deeply held, personal, embittered struggle, and someone needs to find a way to help them out of it. I know that he cannot appoint a mediator, but is there...

Coventry City Football Club (12 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: The problem is exemplified by my right hon. Friend’s intervention. Assuming that it is impossible—the people involved are bitter, and are at it like that all the time—someone should go in with a cool head, look at both sides without taking a prejudiced position, and try to bring them together. That would be the role to take, but I appreciate that the Minister has no...

Opposition Day — [19th Allotted Day] — Tax Fairness (12 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: Does my hon. Friend not find it strange that the Government do not seem to understand that taxes are an element of economic policy that can be adjusted in line with economic circumstances? During the first period of the Labour Government, the prevailing circumstances meant that there was no case or need for taxes to be increased, by means of a mansion tax or by any other means. When the need...

Opposition Day — [19th Allotted Day] — Tax Fairness (12 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: Before we leave the subject of the hapless Liberals and consistency, does my hon. Friend agree that they do show consistency in their inconsistency and in their insincerity—that is the only consistency we can identify?

Oral Answers to Questions — Prime Minister: Syria (6 March 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: The Foreign Secretary is well aware that there is no shortage of lethal weapons in Syria, so there is very little, if any, case for our supplying any. Frankly, supplying armoured four-wheel drive vehicles as well as personal protection equipment, including body armour, to the opposition and peoples we are trying to support, so that they can drive around in a state of total personal immunity,...

Backbench Business — Death Penalty (India) (28 February 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: I acknowledge that technical point, but the motion’s heading highlights what the Kesri Lehar campaign wants us to debate and impress upon the Indian Government: the need for the abolition of the death penalty in India. The death penalty is abhorrent to the vast majority of Members, especially as we on this side of the House are, as socialists, opposed in principle to it. We want to make...

Oral Answers to Questions — Defence: Economic Policy (25 February 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: Is the Chancellor aware that the whole country is getting progressively more sick of the mantra that there is no alternative, which he parades as a policy, and that for as long as he perseveres with these counter-productive policies there is no hope? In particular, until he can get his national programme for investment in infrastructure under way—even the director general of the CBI...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Infrastructure Investment (29 January 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: Is the Chancellor aware that Mr John Cridland of the CBI said yesterday that the Government have a national infrastructure plan but were just incompetent at delivering it? That incompetence, which characterises the Government, is leading to a situation in which the Government will have achieved, by the end of this Parliament, about half the level of national infrastructure investment of 2008,...

Algeria (18 January 2013)

Geoffrey Robinson: I thank the Prime Minister for coming to the House. It is appropriate that he reported this grave situation in the way he did and in the tone he adopted. He rightly said that we must give the French every support, and I think the whole House would agree with that. It is important that they prevail in that intervention, which enjoys the support of the whole Security Council and of the UN. Will...

West Midlands Economy (19 December 2012)

Geoffrey Robinson: May I say what a pleasure it is to serve—for the first time, I think—under your chairmanship, Mr Bayley? I thank Mr Speaker for granting this debate, and my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry South (Mr Cunningham) for inviting me to take part in it. The debate is timely, given the dreadful news that came in the autumn statement, the downgrading of the Government’s...

West Midlands Economy (19 December 2012)

Geoffrey Robinson: No, I will not. If I had the remotest hope of the intervention being intelligent or relevant to what we are talking about, which is the west midlands and Coventry, in the way that the intervention of my hon. Friend the Member for Central Ayrshire (Mr Donohoe) was, I would. However, we know that it would be a recital of what the hon. Member for Nuneaton (Mr Jones) believes are the great...

West Midlands Economy (19 December 2012)

Geoffrey Robinson: I am grateful to you, Mr Bayley, but I know the Minister personally very well. He is extraordinarily succinct in everything that he has to say, and I am not sure that he is going to tell us very much when it comes to it, but I do have a question or two to ask him, if I may. We are so pleased to be in the broadband scheme. Unfortunately, I do not think that broadband will play a big part in...